Burn Down Your Workstation, Coworking Is Here To Stay

On a freezing, dark October evening, The Hive hosted a warm, welcoming event to kick off another busy season at their Vancouver-based co-working space. The event was filled with young, aspiring entrepreneurs, techies, and local professionals. The event also gave different professionals an opportunity to discuss the fluctuating trends in global business, share brilliant ideas, and ultimately, celebrate the rise of this co-working community.

Here’s how marketers can take advantage of co-working space:

Expand your network.

“Your network is your net worth.” By joining the co-working community, you’ll be able to frequently meet new people. Not only will this help you enhance the creative part of your brain, as you will likely be able to bounce off ideas from people who think completely different from you, but also augment your network. This will help you find new career opportunities, come up with new marketing ideas, and foster business relationships that will guide you through this ever-changing, dynamic business world. While you can nonetheless interact with your current colleagues and bounce ideas off them, meeting new professionals from completely different fields can substantially help you gain new perspectives in work and life.

Work in a professional environment.

According to Forbes, roughly 65 million Americans will work as freelancers, temps, independent contractors, and solopreneurs by 2020, making up 40% of the national work force. While these independent professionals can work remotely from home, at a library, or at a local Starbucks, they may crave working at a professional environment. To satisfy to this craving, solopreneurs and independent marketing consultants can rent office spaces at co-working spots like The Hive. This will allow these independent workers to gain access to their own personal workstations, a collaborative, professional environment, and even mailboxes. This in turn can help these independent workers feel more professional and confident. According to Washington Post, people who dress professionally and respond positively to their attires’ symbolic meaning are more efficient. While the study focused primarily on the vitality of professional attires in influencing your performance, we believe the level of your workplace’s professionalism is just as crucial in impacting your output.

Improve productivity.

Humans are social beings and we need to have human interactions in order to become more creative, more knowledgeable, and most important, more productive. According to Fast Company, 71% of co-working space participants says they’ve seen a boost in their creativity since working at a co-working spot. Simultaneously, 62% says their standard of work has risen. This increased productivity is likely due to the supportiveness of co-working places in embracing creative collaboration. This in turn has enabled 64% coworkers complete their tasks timelier. Hence, if you’re a marketing manager or a person with managerial authority, this is place where you’d like to see your team join. After all, you aren’t hiring your team so that they can sit in front of their workstations 40 hours a week. You hired them so that they can help your company grow with their creative minds and diligent work ethics. By leveraging co-working spaces, you can further enhance your team’s productivity and quality of work.